“There will be part of me that will always be sad because this isn’t how it was supposed to be.”

Those were the words of seven-month pregnant mother Laura Wood, who lost her second child Stanley when he was just 11 days old.

Mrs Wood had a dream pregnancy, easy birth and everything was perfect when she and husband Gordon, an equity trader, took tiny baby Stanley home to meet his brother Bertie, two.

But just five days later tragedy struck and Stanley was rushed to Banbury’s Horton Hospital with a heart condition and left fighting for his life.

The tiny tot was transferred to Southampton General Hospital, the nearest children’s heart centre because Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital’s unit was closed.

There they were told the devastating news that baby Stanley had ‘hypo plastic left heart syndrome’, which meant half his heart had not developed, and there was no cure.

Stanley’s organs had already started to shut down, and his only chance to prolong his life was open heart surgery if he was strong enough.

Sadly it was not to be, and the couple had to make the hardest decision of their lives to turn off their baby’s life support machine last June.

Mrs Wood, of Middle Barton Road, Duns Tew, near Bicester, said: “He came off the life support machine on the Sunday. He was expected to stay with us until Sunday night, but he stayed until Tuesday afternoon.

“It was hard psychologically, we just sat waiting for what we knew was going to happen.

“But I was able to sleep in bed with him, I bathed him and was able to express milk which they gave to him in a tube.

“The hard bit was because he was a real person. We came home with a healthy little boy and it was difficult because very few people got to meet him.”

A day after Stanley died the couple opened an Internet charity account where friends and family could donate cash in Stanley’s name.

In less than a year £15,000 was raised and the money has been used pay for a £12,000 hi-tech blanket that can control sick children’s temperature at the paediatric intensive care unit in Southampton. The rest of the cash will be used to make the parents’ room more comfortable.

A collection at Stanley’s funeral also raised £400 for Helen and Douglas House hospice in Oxford.

Months later Mrs Wood discovered she was pregnant with the couple’s third child and now they are looking forward to a summer birth.

She said: “The pain will always be here – but we have the happiness coming.”

On Saturday, Bertie, who goes to Hobby Horse Children’s Centre, based at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, Banbury, will release a balloon in memory of Stanley to mark what would have been his first birthday.

Conditions such as heart defects can be detected during pregnancy scans — Mrs Wood said Stanley’s heart condition was not picked up.